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An Alberta school funded fully by taxpayers and answerable to a public board requires teachers to abstain from “homosexual relations” and warns students that the unjust risk everlasting torment in the “lake of fire.”

An opposition critic expressed shock Sunday that the Conservative government recently committed to spending $7 million to modernize and expand Prairie Christian Academy (PCA), despite the fact the Three Hills facility displays policies on its website that “fly in the face” of both the province’s human rights legislation and the country’s Constitution.

“Fifteen years after the Supreme Court outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it is unbelievable this is still happening,” Liberal MLA Kent Hehr said.

“I am starting to question what oversight Minister Jeff Johnson and his education department are providing to the system.”

A private religious school founded more than seven decades ago, Prairie Christian Academy joined the Golden Hills School Division in 2003, a decision the school’s website says allowed it to get increased public funding.

While parents still pay nominal fees for religious education, the regular program of study, busing and even lease and utility costs are fully covered by the local board.

The K-12 school, located about 130 kilometres northeast of Calgary, is one of several dozen faith-based facilities that have become part of the public system since the province amended the School Act in 1988 to make the moves possible.

A concluding paragraph in PCA’s statement of faith, which all students in Grades 7 through 12 are required to sign, says the unjust will go to Hell and be subject to “everlasting punishment of conscious torment in the lake of fire.”

The reference from the Book of Revelation entered popular political parlance in Alberta during the 2012 provincial election.

Wildrose leader Danielle Smith faced heavy criticism at the time when she refused to dump candidate Allen Hunsperger for his use of the term in a blog post critical of new policies at some school boards aimed at protecting gay and lesbian students from bullying.

The handbook children at PCA receive threatens suspension or expulsion for serious violations of school rules or a display of attitudes which hinder the growth of other students.

“Actions such as social dancing, the use of tobacco, alcohol and non-prescribed drugs are not acceptable,” the discipline section states.

“The same could be said about the use of pornography and participation in elicit (sic) sexual conduct.”

The school’s professional and ethical standards require all teachers to “uphold the sanctity of marriage, defined as that between a man and a woman, and abstain from homosexual relations and sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage.”

Golden Hills’ superintendent Bevan Daverne said he was not aware of any student or staff member at PCA who has been disciplined for sexual misconduct in his three years at the helm.

But Daverne said some special requirements were appropriate for staff in alternative programs.

“If we were offering a language school with French or Spanish immersion, we wouldn’t be hiring teachers who weren’t fluent,” he said.

“The same is true with our religious-based programming where we’re looking for staff who have a fluency within that faith.”

While Daverne said the board still wants to continue its arrangement with PCA, he said some of the language in the school’s documents needs to be updated and modernized.

“Some of the items you’ve mentioned that are in there, even so far as the smoking and the alcohol, we need to look at those items and see if that’s a fit with the current culture,” he said.

“At the same time, we want to be supportive of our community and what they are looking for.”

Jason Ewert, PCA’s society chair, did not reply Sunday to an email request for comment.

This is the second public board where the Herald has found a school with rules censuring gays and lesbians.

A recent agreement between Palliser Regional Schools and Heritage Christian Academy in Calgary threatens students with expulsion and staff with dismissal if they engage in a “lifestyle of sexual immorality.”

A prior version of the deal defined that to include premarital relations, viewing pornography and homosexual behaviour.

Johnson was not available to be interviewed for this story, but his press secretary said last week that Alberta Education is reviewing conduct policies at faith-based schools around the province to ensure they comply with the Charter and human rights law.

Daverne said the province committed a year ago to spending approximately $7 million to build a larger facility that will hold up to 400 children.

The project got the government go-ahead despite a recent Golden Hills study that found PCA’s current enrolment of 255 students was stable and unlikely to change in the coming years.

Hehr said the Tories need to act swiftly now or risk being seen as supporting intolerance with taxpayer dollars.

“Either these schools stop this ludicrous behaviour or their funding should cease immediately,” Hehr said.

“I couldn’t care less what these parents believe, but what I want is leadership from our government about what our society believes.”

Delwin Vriend, a lab instructor at a private religious college in Edmonton who was fired from his job over two decades ago because he was gay, said he’s disappointed.

While Vriend’s successful fight all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada may have changed human rights law in Alberta in 1998 to forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, he said it apparently hasn’t changed practices in the province.

“These policies send a horrible message to students and staff who may already be struggling with the fact they are gay or lesbian,” Vriend said in a phone interview from his current home in France.

“It’s disconcerting that a public school board is allowing a school to tell the wider society in Alberta that this sort of discrimination is still OK.”

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